Advantages

Disadvantages

I visited Tiger Tiger on the evening of 11th April 2009 as I had tickets for the comedy club held there (Big Night Out). The ticket cost £9.99 booked in advance, and included nightclub entry. Tiger Tiger is a club/restaurant/bar spread over five separate areas, it has a lavish design with low level lighting, funky leather and wood furniture and chandeliers.

Location

Tiger Tiger is located in Central London near Piccadilly Circus. Although it is one minute walk away from the tube station it took me over 15 minutes to get there as I got lost due to the numerous roads leading off from the Circus.

The Door

As I had booked tickets online I was quickly let in by the polite well-dressed door staff and not searched (this was around 8pm). I am 23 but have on occasion been asked for ID when buying Lottery tickets, so I was slightly surprised that I was not asked to show ID. However later on in the evening as I was leaving, those entering the club were being patted down and bags were being searched. This is only to be expected I suppose, especially as Tiger Tiger has been the target of a car bomb (didn't explode though luckily). The dress code states no sportswear allowed and trainers and jeans must be smart.

The Comedy Club

The comedians were Hal Cruttenden, Danny Buckler and Milton Jones (in that order). I thoroughly enjoyed the first two acts, laughing solidly all the way through. However I thought the last act was rubbish. He was on stage for about 20 minutes and repeated the same joke for the first 10 minutes!

The seating was rather tight, however it is a rather cosy (small) room so you are never far from the act. There was a lot of banter with the audience, and at times the Stag groups got a bit out of hand. However the acts were good at turning this round.

The toilets

I only visited the toilets on the basement floor, which were clean. There was no soap in the fancy dispensers as there is a pushy toilet attendant holding a hand soap dispenser (from the supermarket). I was using the hand dryer but the attendant kept trying to shove paper towels at me, which was a bit frustrating. There was a small plate to tip the attendant.

Drinks

Happy hour is from 5-8pm but we missed that so I will tell you about the drink prices that we paid. A Jack Daniels and coke was £4.40, but I was shocked at the amount of ice. The glass was filled to the top with ice before any drink was put in, and I felt really ripped off. Next time I will ask for some drink with my ice. The same thing happened when we ordered a cocktail jug. We ordered a Mai Tai cocktail which was a gorgeous mixture of rum, almond, orange and grenadine but expensive at £15.40 for a jug which holds around 5 glasses worth. The bar staff weren't particularly friendly to be honest. I know the bar is busy, but bar stuff on the continent always seem to have a smile for you even if they are rushed off their feet.

Club

After the comedy club had finished at around 10pm, the chairs were cleared from the room and the DJ started playing mostly old school dance music e.g. CeCe Peniston - Finally. I am not old but the music seemed way too loud for such a small room and my hearing is still muffled a day later! The place gets full very quickly and there aren't many places to put your drink down. I only stayed until 11.30pm as I needed to get home on the tube so I am not able to say if the place stays busy throughout the night, but there was a big queue to get in as I was leaving.

Advantages

Disadvantages

I usually use the home-delivery from Asda and Tesco each month but go to the Sainsburys in person, however there were a lot of heavy items on offer so I decided to register for their home shopping servic

I felt the registration process was simple and didn't have any problems. There is a facility to add a nectar card to the account which is handy as it enables you to view a list of your favourites based on what you would normally buy in store.

Offers

There are always a lot of offers on in Sainsburys and these are simple to find on the website. Once a delivery slot has been booked, the basket total is calculated taking into consideration any special offers, unlike Asda or Tesco. Unfortunately I don't like this as if you need to spend a certain amount to qualify for a deal or use e-voucher then you have to spend the amount, and can't use BOGOF offers to make the basket total look higher

I registered a couple of weeks before placing my order and was pleased to receive an e-voucher for £10 off a spend of £50.

I had to change some items on my order and had no problems doing so. If having an afternoon delivery it is possible to change the delivery time up until 9pm the previous night. I was pleased that the money wasn't taken until the goods were picked.

Delivery is available in one hour slots and costs £3.50 and upwards. The delivery men were helpful and explained the process because I was a new customer. I didn't have any items substituted so I can't comment on this, but one item had a short shelf-life and I was advised of this.

Delivery was on time

Follow up 17/04/09

Last order I received had 5 packs of mouldy cheese but customer services refused to do anything as I'd had them over a week! I'm sorry but I don't eat all my food straight away when I shop for the month.

Advantages

Disadvantages

DFS is a large retailer that sells furniture, mainly sofas etc. The store I visited was the South Ruislip branch. Prior to deciding to go to DFS I had thoroughly done my research and was aware of its many problems however I found that other shops didn't have the range of colours I was interested in.... or the trendy styles.

The Store

The shop floor is well laid out. On walking into the store it was possible to see most of the designs at a glance without having to walk around the entire store. I had already decided to buy a corner group and there were many available at the price I was willing to spend (£900). It wasn't very busy at the time, which meant that a Salesman pounced on us. Most of the items had prices clearly labelled.

The Prices

The RRPs of the products are ridiculous, for example there can be two items that are the same apart from insignificant design features and one could have an RRP of £1700 (but on sale at half price) and the other have a RRP of £800 (but full price). It appears to be a ploy to make you think you're getting a better deal than you really are. The half price sale seems to be on constantly. The prices are slightly more expensive than Argos for the same piece of furniture but unfortunately Argos didn't sell corner groups in exciting colours at the time.

Stain Cover

Please please watch out for this. I bought my corner suite and was about to key my pin into the chip and pin device and noticed that the price was about £140 more than I expected. I was told this was stain-cover and absolutely necessary. As I had a small child with me the salesman pointed out that the can create mess, and stain sofas (as if I don't know this!) In the end he accepted that I didn't want the cover and changed the amount on the chip and pin device.

Delivery

The item was quoted as taking 12 weeks for delivery as it comes from Italy. The delivery was around 1 week later than quoted, however delivery was free unlike many companies delivering large items. The delivery men were very helpful and wouldn't let me lift a finger to help. They put the sofa in the right place, and took away all the packaging afterwards.

The Sofa

The leather sofas are available in a number of colours, and I was advised to go outside into the natural light to look at the chart.

I ordered a blue leather corner group, which looked very good quality when it arrived. I had been advised to wipe the leather down with a baby wipe to clean, however the dye seems to come off quite easily for a £900 sofa. Another problem is that the arm of the chair started to sag quite quickly (within 2 months). The seating of the sofa hasn't started to sag yet though, which is a plus point.

Advantages

Disadvantages

I bought this phone a few months after it first came out, so some of the problems I have had with it may have been fixed by now.

This is definately the phone to have if you like to be stylish and the centre of attention. Before the iPhone came out this was the definitive touch-screen, however I now find that people are less impressed when they realise it's not an iPhone you're holding.

The touchscreen is brilliantly shiny at first, and I would suggest buying a protective plastic film to preserve it. I did this, but before I got round to getting a new one I dropped the phone on the floor. It scratches quite easily, and this is more noticeable with the black screen.

It is possible to change the theme of the phone, so if black isn't really your thing then you can choose from a butterfly, fish or blue theme.

The visuals on the screen are really good however i'm no phone expert and i'm comparing it to my old Sharp GX30! The photos I have taken with this phone come out clearly, and the quality of the images on screen is near to that of my home computer.

Battery Life - I would say the battery life has been rubbish since it was first bought. I remember with fondness the Nokia phones (which were the size of bricks), with their week-long battery life. However I would say that if you use this phone for texting or talking regularly, you WILL have to charge it every night! If I forget to plug the charger in at night then it will run out around lunchtime the next day.

The phone has additional features e.g. MP3, FM radio, still and video camera, calender etc etc. I'm not going to go into detail about these as they are pretty much standard across the board.

Touchscreen - this will take a good couple of days to get used to, however I now find it very quick to use. The touchscreen does seem to freeze at times, usually after a call has been made or received. This can be highly annoying!

I would say that this phone is not easily water damaged. My two year old son actually put mine in a glass of blackcurrant squash and it was fully working an hour later!

Problems -

Can be difficult getting used to bringing the numbers up on screen during a call (e.g. when trying to navigate automated telephone systems)

Sometimes the date seems to flick back a day for no apparent reason, which means that the alarms don't go off!

Advantages

Disadvantages

If like me you have a young child that loves the Little Einsteins then I would really suggest buying this toy. The rocket is around 30cm long and is made of very tough plastic, which is great for clumsy or boisterous little ones.

The product guidelines state that the product is for age 3+, however my son was 2 when I bought him this toy and I haven't found it to be dangerous for him.

Features:

The rocket comes with all four Little Einsteins, these are made of a hard rubber and only fit into the specific seats that they use in the TV programs. As they are sat in the seats they say phrases from the TV show. I think it's clever that if one of the Little Einsteins are missing, one of the characters says 'we need all the Little Einsteins for this mission' which may hopefully encourage the child to keep them all together.

When the rocket is rolled across the floor, music from the TV series is played, quickly or slowly (allegro or adagio) depending on how fast the rocket is being rolled. Underneath the rocket is a handle that folds out for 'flying mode' in which different music is played, if the rocket is pointed upwards it plays loudly, pointed downwards it plays quietly.

My two year old doesn't have any problem using this rocket as he's very big for his age, however smaller children may find it difficult to lift for 'flying mode' as it is very well made and therefore a little bit heavier than most toys of its size.

The only problems I have with this product are as follows:

1. The top/lid of the rocket comes off far too easily in small hands. This is designed to make it less likely to break, but means that in the first couple of weeks after it was bought I spent a lot of time re-attaching it, for an upset two year old.

2. Although additional playsets for this item are available (e.g. Egypt, Alaska, and underwater mission sets), I have never seen them anywhere except for Amazon and Ebay (at a premium cost).

This toy may seem expensive but it is definately worth it, considering the quality and playability. My Son plays with this all the time and loves the fact that he can play along with the Little Einsteins when watching them on the TV.

I've seen this product at ELC, Argos, Amazon and Ebay. I personally bought it for £24 using a discount code but would have paid full price if I had to.

Advantages

Disadvantages

After a couple of years of marriage I decided to take the plunge into 'the art of massage', I shopped around to see what prices the oils sold at, and was put-off by The Body Shop's prices at first. I didn't quite understand why it was around 5 times the price of baby oil, but as it was nearing christmas and I had a offer of £5 discount I thought i'd give it a go.

The Scent - both my husband and I love the smell of this. It has a sweet floral smell. Without meaning to cause offence I would say that it has a hippy-smell (maybe the ylang ylang?)

Only a small amount is needed. After using enough for a 30 minute back, neck and shoulder massage I could hardly tell that i'd used anything out of the bottle. When giving a massage I found that my hands glided effortlessly acros the skin due to the silky nature of the oil. It leaves the skin (on massager and massagee) feeling soft and supple, and doesn't seem to leave as much of an oily residue as baby oil. It's also not as messy and doesn't tend to run as easily. The oil does sink into the skin nicely, meaning that any little excess can be wiped off with a towel. It didn't seem to stain any of my towels, however I would still be careful if using new fluffy white ones.

When the massage was reciprocated I enjoyed the smell of the oils and it had a calming effect on me, not sure i'd describe it as sensual though

Advantages

Disadvantages

I have visited Westfield shopping centre on a few occasions, either on my own, with my husband, or with a young child. Travelling to Westfield by public transport is easy. The Shepherd's Bush central line station is just outside and there appears to be a number of bus stops nearby.

When walking inside it is clear that top brands have put a lot of money into making their stores look visuall stunning, for example All Saints have hundreds of antique-looking sewing machines in their windows.

Paper mall guides are available at the front desk, however because the Mall is so big the paper guide may be a bit difficult to decipher. Electronic touchscreen maps are located throughout the centre and have varying heights for accessibility, although they don't always work properly.

The shopping centre is heated well, i've always ended up taking of my coat in there, even when it's been freezing outside! There are seating areas dotted around the place, this varies from low leather-style seating to bucket-chair style seating. Probably not great for those with mobility problems who struggle to get out of low/deep chairs, but perfect for my two year old to sit for a break.

I would say that this shopping centre is relatively calm most of the time, and the size means that there always seems to be plenty of room to walk about. If taking young children then I would just add that it is quite a long walk to get around all the shops, and there are no fast-food outlets e.g. Macdonalds, KFC, Burger King.

A definate positive for me... the toilet facilities are fabulous! There is luxury toilet paper (having toilet paper can be a luxury in other places!), a spray to clean the toilet, and nice hand-drying facilities. Best of all they always seem to be clean.

The shopping centre doesn't look much different now to when it first opened a few months ago, still very clean and shiny!

Advantages

Disadvantages

Although I love this chocolate-scented shower gel by Lush, I would suggest that people smell it prior to buying as it may not be to most tastes. This is the most expensive of the shower gels (currently £14.44) for a 500ml bottle, however this is due to the expensive ingredients included, e.g. coffee, cocoa and hemp oil to name a few. Initially I was disappointed at the slightly runny consistency, but after shaking it up a little it became thicker, and only a small amount is needed to produce a lot of lather. It left my skin feeling smooth to the touch (as most Lush products do). You will be able to smell this in the house (and on your skin) for at least a few hours after use..... it is VERY STRONG!!!! People seem to perceive the smell differently but my opinion is that it smells like a spicier version of a Terry's Chocolate Orange. This must be the only supposedly chocolate-scented bath product that actually smells like chocolate!

In my opinion this is an ideal present for a man in his teens or twenties, but i'm a 23 year old female and absolutely love this, so that's not a definitive answer!